It seems Microsoft has bowed to the pressure from enterprises and computer manufacturers who aren't ready to put all of their eggs into the Vista basket.
The software giant has reportedly begun offering a downgrade option to PC makers who want to allow their customers to have the option of using XP over the pre-installed Vista software.
Retailers and computer makers can keep selling Windows XP, rather than just the newer Windows Vista, for five months longer than originally planned, Microsoft said Thursday.
The Redmond company extended the older operating system's availability based on customer feedback, it said.
"We're absolutely pleased with the uptake of Vista, but we were hearing we were a little ambitious in thinking a year would be enough for the transition from XP," said Kevin Kutz, a Windows client marketing director.
All versions of Windows XP will now be available at retail and through major computer makers through June 30 rather than being discontinued on Jan. 30.
You just can’t seem to throw enough memory at Vista.
There have been a number of issues that Vista users have reported relating to copying and moving data, especially large numbers of files. Often there can be multiple errors at play making it difficult for Vista users to track down the problem, in fact very often there is little indication that file copy operations haven’t completed correctly. It’s only when the user checks the number of files in source and destination that they realize they have a problem.
While Vista was originally touted by Microsoft as the operating system savior we've all been waiting for, it has turned out to be one of the biggest blunders in technology. With a host of issues that are inexcusable and features that are taken from the Mac OS X and Linux playbook, Microsoft has once again lost sight of what we really want.
As we're more than aware, Vista Ultimate comes at a premium. For an additional $160 over the Premium SKU price, Ultimate gives you a complete backup and restore option, BitLocker Drive encryption, the ever so popular Windows Fax & Scan, and the "Ultimate Extras." But what started with a promise of "Extras" by summer, quickly turned into an apology from Microsoft and the eventual release of DreamScene and Windows Hold 'Em (among others) today. And while each of the "Extras" runs just fine, Microsoft's "Extras" blunder is just another reason why the company must abandon Vista before it's too late.
My mother decided she wanted a new laptop, and since she has always known Windows, she was determined to use it, even if it meant Vista. So, since I know more than her about laptops, I was in charge of setting up the one she chose.
Oh, how horrible it was.
My mother decided she wanted a new laptop, and since she has always known Windows, she was determined to use it, even if it meant Vista. So, since I know more than her about laptops, I was in charge of setting up the one she chose.
After accompanying her to Best Buy, she picked out a Gateway laptop for about $400 that ran Windows Vista Home Basic, equipped with 512 MB of RAM and 80 GB of hard drive space. It had a decent graphics card, nothing too fancy, but she's not a gamer or anything.
When the EU Court of First Instance announced its verdict on September 17, upholding the EU Commission's findings that Microsoft abused its market dominance, the media flocked to the lawyers representing the various parties for reactions to the ruling, Brad Smith for Microsoft, Carlo Piana for FSFE and Samba, and Thomas Vinje, who represented ECIS, the European Committee for Interoperable Systems. You can see both Smith and Vinje in this YouTube video from EUX.TV, for example.
Mr. Vinje was gracious enough to sit down with our own Sean Daly for an interview about the case, the decision, its implications, the history, and what it means going forward. I was particularly interested in his comments forcefully explaining how in his view the decision in no way impacts on Apple, Google or any company but Microsoft:
After the International Organization for Standardization voted to reject Microsoft's Office Open XML document format as a standard, the detailed results from ISO member countries give us a lot of material to analyze.
Votes from South-eastern Europe and former Yugoslavia countries showed Microsoft's domination of that market, and especially good connections with authorities because most of the national standardization bodies voted "Yes with no comments".
Romania and Bulgaria, members of European Union, together with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia, gave a green light for Microsoft's format, with comments from Bulgaria. In this story, we take a look at the decision processes and reactions in those countries.
Slashdot writes with news of a serious multiplication bug in Excel 2007, which has been reported to the company. The example that first came to light is =850*77.1 — which gives a result of 100,000 instead of the correct 65,535. It seems that any formula that should evaluate to 65,535 will act strangely. One poster in the forum noted these behaviors:
If one were to believe Microsoft, antitrust law is for sore losers who are too lazy to innovate, and the decision of the European Court of Justice against Microsoft was to the detriment of consumers around the world. One might even believe that any company with large enough market share would now have to fear the wrath of the European Commission and its anti-innovation bloodhounds.
At first the notion seemed ludicrous, but then more and more blogs repeated it and serious media started picking it up. Even representatives of the US government spoke out on behalf of Microsoft, to the annoyance of Neelie Kroes, the European Union's antitrust commissioner.
When the European Court of First Instance announced its decision, the first reaction of Microsoft was to talk about compliance with the ruling and that it was only partially confirmed by the court. Then people read the decision.
Nine months after the much delayed, and much ballyhooed launch of Windows Vista, things are not looking good for Microsoft's new operating system. Since its release, users have lodged a litany of complaints against Bill Gates's new baby, including poor device and application compatibility, high hardware requirements, and frequent crashes.
In order to sell new computers, which more often than not come with Vista pre-installed, PC manufacturers and retailers are now offering to downgrade customers back to Windows XP. The U.K. electronics retailer Dabs.com now offers to install XP onto new Sony VAIO computers instead of Vista, with the option to switch back to Vista in the future.